Hillary Clinton has registered her lowest popularity ratings since taking the public stage a quarter-century ago and her dismal numbers are now on par with Donald Trump’s, according to a poll released Wednesday. An ABC/Washington Post poll found 38 percent of registered voters have a favorable opinion of Clinton, while 59 percent view her unfavorably.

That compares to Trump’s own lopsided popularity numbers of 37 percent favorable and 60 percent unfavorable. But while Trump’s results have held steady over the last month, Clinton’s have plummeted as questions linger about her handling of official State Department emails and the Clinton Foundation’s conflicts. In the last ABC/Washington Post poll in early August, Clinton had a 46 percent favorable rating, compared to 52 percent unfavorable.(nypost.com)…[+]

Vladimir Putin will not attend the opening of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in September, the Kremlin announced Monday.

Instead, the Russian president is expected to send Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who will address the assembly. Diplomats from around the world will gather at the United Nations from Sept. 20 to 26. President Obama and French President François Hollande are slated to speak on the first day. Putin last year gave his first address to the General Assembly since 2005 — focusing on the Mideast and assailing the way “NATO has kept on expanding, together with its military infrastructure,” despite the end of the Soviet Union, Politico reported.(nypost.com)…[+]

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick Monday, calling Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem “a terrible thing.”

“I think it’s personally not a good thing,” Trump told Seattle radio station KIRO when asked about the controversy. “I think it’s a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him, let him try, it’s not gonna happen.”

Kaepernick became the subject of national controversy over the weekend when he remained seated on the San Francisco bench during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” prior to Friday night’s preseason game against the Green Bay Packers.(nypost.com)…[+]

HARDAN, Iraq — Surrounded by smoke and flames, the sound of gunshots echoing around him, the young man crouched in the creek for hours, listening to the men in his family die.

On the other side of the mountain, another survivor peered through binoculars as the handcuffed men of neighboring villages were shot and then buried by a waiting bulldozer. For six days he watched as the extremists filled one grave after another with his friends and relatives. Between them, the two scenes of horror on Sinjar mountain contain six burial sites and the bodies of more than 100 people, just a small fraction of the mass graves Islamic State extremists have scattered across Iraq and Syria.(nypost.com)…[+]

An 18-year-old assailant with explosives in his backpack tried and failed to detonate a suicide bomb in the middle of a packed Sunday mass service in western Indonesia.

The wannabe martyr evaded police long enough to slice the priest of the Roman Catholic St. Yoseph Church on the hand with an ax before he was restrained. He tried to set off the bomb in his bag, but it only managed to burn a hole in his backpack, according to police. Rev. Albert Pandiangan, 60, was the only one injured in the scary Sunday morning incident and was treated for a cut on his hand.(Nypost.com)…[+]

A suburban Philadelphia couple were beaten to death by their own son in their New Jersey home, authorities said Saturday. Edward Coles Jr., 58, and wife Rosemarie Coles, 55, of West Deptford, were found dead by another family member Friday morning. The couple’s son, 28-year-old Ryan Coles, was arrested on murder and weapons charges. His bail was set at $1 million.The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office said that the couple died from “blunt head trauma” and alleged that Ryan Coles had bludgeoned his parents “with his hands and an unknown object.”Neighbors told local media outlets that police had been called to the couple’s home before. WPVI reported that Ryan Coles struggled with mental illness, but had never been arrested before.(nypost.com)…[+]

Donald Trump wants Hillary Clinton to release her “detailed medical records.”

On Twitter, the Republican presidential candidate offered this challenge to his Democratic rival: “I think that both candidates, Crooked Hillary and myself, should release detailed medical records. I have no problem in doing so! Hillary?”

The Trump campaign and its surrogates have long insinuated Clinton’s health is worse than has been publicly confirmed. Trump has said Clinton lacks the physical “stamina” to be commander in chief. But Clinton’s own doctor, Lisa Bardack, the chair of internal medicine at Mount Kisco Medical Group, has said, “She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States.”(nypost.com)…[+]

Hillary Clinton met with intelligence officials for a two-hour security briefing Saturday morning, her first since winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

Regular national security updates are the norm for presidential candidates, and Trump received his first briefing two weeks ago. Trump’s campaign slammed the news in a press release that dubbed Clinton an “insider threat” for her mishandling of classified information — lumping the former secretary of state in with such “careless or disgruntled employees” as Gen. David Petraeus, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, and Maj. Nidal Hassan.(nypost.com)…[+]

Donald Trump on Saturday connected the death of NBA all-star Dwyane Wade’s cousin to his own campaign’s efforts to woo black voters.

“Dwayne Wade’s cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago,” Trump tweeted — initially misspelling the Chicago Bulls player’s first name, and then fixing the error. “Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will VOTE TRUMP!”

Later on, he added: “My condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family, on the loss of Nykea Aldridge. They are in my thoughts and prayers.” The tweets were in reaction to the Friday killing of Aldridge, a 32-year-old woman who was caught in crossfire while pushing her baby in a stroller in Chicago’s Parkway Gardens neighborhood. Trump, who casts himself as the law-and-order candidate, has made appeals to African-American voters in recent days, saying the struggles of minority communities are a result of Democrats’ policies.(nypost.com)…[+]

The telltale white coffin of a child stood out in the row of caskets. The story of the little girl it carried added to Italy’s heartbreak.

During a funeral Mass Saturday for 35 of the 291 people killed by the earthquake that ravaged central Italy, Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole recalled witnessing the recovery of 9-year-old Giulia Rinaldo. Around 6 p.m. on Wednesday — 15 hours after the quake struck — D’Ercole went to recover a crucifix from the church in the town of Pescara Del Tronto. Steps away, firefighters were digging out Giulia and her 4-year-old sister, Giorgia. The older girl was over the younger. Giulia was dead, and Giorgia was alive. “They were in an embrace,” D’Ercole said.(nypost.com)…[+]